Bush was today driven in a campaign bus around the UP. The first appearance of a president in that part of the state since Howard Taft visited in 1911, according to the Washington Post. (Fact-checked though that factoid must have been by the researchers at the Post, I wonder ….. Gerald Ford’s never been up there? That’s really, really hard to believe. My semi-librarian senses are tingling.) One more excuse for the Beltway reporters accompanying Bush to crack stupid, condescending jokes and make supposedly trenchant “color” observations about the UP.

Steve Mariucci, currently coach of the Lions and erstwhile coach of the 49ers, opened a Bush rally in Marquette with the words, “Welcome to God’s country,” which he would have been pelted with rocks and garbage for uttering if he’d done it while he was still in the Bay Area.